Thrift Store Pen-Pals! (Aren't Trying to Kill Me)

I arrived home to discover a small package sitting upon the pile of crap sitting upon my laptop in the kitchen. I looked at and flipped it over, analyzing all sides of it. The return address indicated it came from one Mr. Wood.  Being too impatient to wait for my bomb squad and forensics team, I gave the box a small shake. To my relief it did not explode, however the rattling sound also confirmed the sad fact I did not receive a bunny. Not even an exploding bunny. But to be sure I let my cat check it out.

Going to apologize now for poor resolution and orientation.  Some photos were done via iPod and can't be edited *mumblegrumblerootintootinvarmits

 He rubbed against it and started purring, a sure sign of nothing. It was time to open the package.

Package breached!

It contained two items. A tiny, disassembled torture device and a tiny colouring book with even tinier coloured pencils. I would need a special team to figure out these devices did.

They immediately set about extracting the wooden torture device from its anaerobic containment unit.

Upon closer inspection of its parts, the team decided it must a robot or mech-suit of some sort and began the assembly process.

It took a few tries before it started making sense. They finally completed the terrifying war machine and set about testing it...

It proved highly ineffective and the team decided it should go to the scrap heap

The next item proved just as difficult for the team. The color-by-number system eluded them and they went all willy-nilly on it.

Sarlaacs are no laughing matter.

The team poses for a shot after confirming there was nothing hostile in the package.

And so that's my long-delayed report on my Thrift-Store Pen Pals Package.  Glad to see Woody isn't trying to kill me =D

Californication II: Criss-Crossing Cutlery

Agincourt as stolen from Wikipedia

One of my other reasons for the trip last week was to attend an SCA even in Aethlemaerc called Agincourt.  It's named after a famous English/French battle where the English archers are thought to have nearly annihilated the French knights.  There is debate over exactly where and what all happened, but that's the gist.

Anywho, after arriving in California and enacting the a fore mentioned shenanigans, I went to the college's fencing practice. YAAAY stabbing people.  It was nice to return to the relatively organized practice of Silva Vulcani.  In my experience it is the most disciplined and focus SCA rapier practice (my experience is 5 different places total, so grains of salt for all).  It was nice to fight all my friends again, though I must say I don't think they were all on top of their game.  That or I've gotten better but we'll ignore that for now.  I was quite pleased to see how well the newest members were doing too.

Agincourt itself was on Saturday, and sadly there was no fencing :(  Someone done goofed and didn't make space for us.  There was however archery, which I did a few rounds of before wandering off to mingle.  I tried some strawberry ale, and at first wasn't sure how I felt about it.  Neither did any of my friends.  By half way through I decided how I felt, and it was a no.  I abandoned it in someone else's hand and fled.  At the end of the even I stood as one of the Queen's Guards (ironic since I now live in the East).  Some really awesome people got some really awesome awards at court and I'm glad I was there to see it.

And for people new to my blog, and old friends, wondering what the !@#$ is the SCA, he's something to look at:  http://www.indiegogo.com/This-Is-No-Fantasy-2

Enjoy!

Californication I: Sneaky Shenanigans

This past weekend, Thursday to Sunday, I trekked out to California, PA to visit my girl, some friends and attend an SCA event called Agincourt.  The trip isn’t too difficult, just boring.  Three hundred miles of Pennsylvania…and it all looks the same.  Granted it becomes less populated and hillier as you head west, but once you’ve seen the PA Turnpike four times, you’ve seen it all.

Instead of mini-orchids, I procured a pot of Calla Lillies for my girlfriend, which if I remember right are one of her favorites. (Glad I did, watched all the unsold ones get tossed at work today =( )  She was en route to class when I first arrived however, and rather than put out a signal flare that I was on campus, decided to make my way to the library and see if fencing club was still in its meeting.  I couldn’t find them in the usually spots (which they weren’t in anyway) and so made my way to fourth floor.  As I alighted from the elevation converter, I received a text from one Shane Pilgrim.  He had just discovered my Facebook status about being on my way, and wanted to know when I would arrive.  For those of you wishing to stalk Mr. Pilgrim, he works on said fourth floor, mere yards from where I was standing at the time.  I walked into the office where he keeps watch, and with luck, found him facing away from the door (not a very good guard).  Rather than answering via text, I silently approached his desk, and said: “I already have.”  The response was most satisfying; a startled jump, a “holy shit man,” and of course, that friendly hug straight guys do.  After chatting a bit I made sure he’d go play Magic and drink with the gang later and continued my search for people I know. 

I was on my way to the student center when I received another text, this time from my girlfriend’s roommate (Who happens to be my most recent ex & is dating my best friend from grade school).  She let me into the room and ran off to class.  I layed on my girl’s bed thinking I might catch some sleep.  WRONG.  I was visited by one of my friends who ironically lives right above my girlfriend.  We talked about how the atmosphere of the college had changed and where life was going etc.  I’m actually kinda proud of this girl.  When she first came to school, she was very…naïve? And sheltered?  I remember her sitting on a friend’s couch with her brand new Dell laptop, and asking us if she had a Mac or a PC.  Her parents, while very nice, are devoutly Christian, and the first few years of college this was very apparent in my friend too.  But while she visited with me she explained how she loves home, but really doesn’t ever want to live there again, that college had been too liberating.  I also know she’s become much more independent since her freshman year.

After a little bit she went back to her room to do homework (I don’t miss that) and my girlfriend’s roommate returned.  Shortly afterward we went to sneak a Viking into the building and then sat about waiting for my girl to get out of class.  Knowing she was close, we decided to hide all trace of me in her room except for me, which was placed behind the door.  She must be more aware of her surroundings than Mr. Pilgrim, she was still surprised but turned to me as I moved from behind the door.  I greeted her with a bone-crushing hug.

We proceeded to chill until Silva Vulcani’s fencing practice, but I’ve reached that limit of acceptable blog length and must cut it off here. More to come I promise, as soon as I have time and motivation.

Been Too Busy to Breathe? Drink Some Air

Been a while since I posted...or at least I think it has been. So while I sit here waiting for season two of AMC's The Walking Dead to start, I'll do some writing.

I'm not terribly savvy on current news but the Occupy movement has been everywhere.  I know there's a lot of confusion among the protesters as to what their purpose is.  Their home site, which I think is this, states that their purpose is to end the corruption of America's politics.

In my freshman year of college my one professor told us that we'd probably see another revolution in the U.S. in our lifetime, and I think this movement could be it if it could only get organized.  America's politics is hugely controlled by corporations.  I've never understood how lobbyists are legal, they hang around the House and essentially hand our checks to Reps who vote in favor of their company.  I really don't know what the difference is between that and bribery, except one is legal.  The alternative of course is to actually get a mob to storm the House of Reps, tell them they're all fired, and elect normal people.

In other political news, I saw some stuff about primaries, mostly Gov. Corbine? from NJ refusing to run for President (which I'm a-okay with) and endorsing Mit Romney.  All that I know about him, is that his main opponent has tried using his religion (Romney is a Mormon) to say he's not a good candidate, that he's a bad Christian or something like that. What I want to know what the hell religion has to do in today's American politics.  I was honestly disappointed when Barack Obama changed his religion before the elections.  To be honest, I feel the ideal candidate in today's world would be agnostic.  You don't need organised religion to have strong morals.

On the subject of Obama, I'm rather disappointed in people's dislike of him.  Yes, he hasn't done all he promised, but without being a dictator, he can't force Congress or the Senate to pass bills.  Obama inherited a mess of problems from George W. Bush, and considering all that, plus Congress bickering like children over everything, I think he's done an ok job.

Keep in mind, politics is not my strong suite and neither is current events.  But I have blog and I'm gonna abuse it god dammit!!!!

MUAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Insert Title Here

So logged into my blogger dash today to see that I have 1009 page views! *and there was much rejoicing*  I think that's pretty good for a blog with 8 followers, no focus, and 31 posts plus this one.  I certainly wouldn't mind more followers and the like, but my life isn't all that interesting.

In other news I was over at Woodn't Ya Know It reading about Woody's trip to a Precious Moments Museum and his trip to a Blue October concert.  He'd never heard of them but I've got some of their stuff in iTunes, though I'm not sure where it came from.  He also raved about the duet opener, IAMDYNAMITE.  Follow the link for a free song download, they're pretty good.

Last night was Bhakail's fencing practice, but there were only about 5 of us there as it coincided with the barony business meeting.  I did however attend the traditional diner visit after practice for the first time.  It was entertaining and reminded me a little bit of my Silva Vulcani group...especially when we took like 20 people to Denny's.  Oh good times...

On the Magic front I've downloaded a few apps for the iPod Touch.  When I first got the iPod there was only one hit under "magic the gathering" and it was the Manalyzer app. It's alright but very basic, so I don't use it.  However within the past week I've found Magic:TGC, Magic L.C., Magic's Little Helper Lite, and iMtG.
Magic: TGC is merely a database of every card and  it's average price across multiple sites.
Magic L.C., or Life Counter, is merely that.  If you haven't splurged on a Fat Pack to get a spindown counter, this will work too.  It can track up to four players, do coin tosses and dice rolls and time your game.
Magic's Little Helper Lite also contains a life counter and such, but the neat thing is that it can track what colors your playing with, and your win/loss stats.  The Lite version is pretty limited and tends to crash on me though.
iMtG I think is my favorite so far.  It contains a card and price database baased on TCGplayer.com's prices.  Has a deck builder function and keeps a list of cards you have, cards you need, and cards you have for trade.  That'll come in handy when I visit my college and the 3 nearby card shops...or Amazon.

Beyond that my week has been pretty uneventful, unless you count getting my Motorcycle Learner's Permit =D  Now to find a motorcycle...

Tune in next time for...something!

I Remembered My Camera!

Kirby says hi!

This post might be fairly long, been an interesting week and I actually took pictures! Yay!  For starters, last week, when I spent way too much money on Magic at Target, I also found little Sonic the Hedgehog figures.  They come in a plastic ball so you don't know which character it is, and you put them together.  They're not well made really but I've been playing Sonic games since Sega Genesis.  I got one for $4 and it was Sonic himself. The model aspect of it meant attaching one arm and his head.  His head didn't fit right so I had to carve out the extra plastic with my swiss army knife and his arm likes to fall off.  This led to the following photo ------------------------------>

Sonic is now part plant and can fly, and no longer needs to eat chili dogs as he can photosynthesize. Yay evolution!...kinda.  Anywho, I should probably avoid Target until they stop carrying these, I got a second one which had Shadow in it, the only other one I want is Metal Sonic, but getting a repeat wouldn't be fun.  

My next photo comes from the Bhakail fencing site, a church basement in North Philly.  It intrigues me and I haven't been able to find any on Google, eBay, etc.  And so I present  this Canada Dry vending 

machine, which once held Orange, Ginger Ale, Cherry, and Cola. I wasn't even aware that Canada Dry made such things other than ginger ale.  This thing makes me think of shows like American Pickers and I kinda want to buy it from the church and set it up in my dad's garage.  I think it's cool.  

Moving along now to the next hobby, trains.  If you have an interest in RR restoration and museums, I suggest you check out Hicks Car Works.  Anywho, Pottstown is home to a pretty neat project known as the Greenbrier Express.  Lately you've been able to spy some of the passenger cars outside the workshop so I stopped and took this horrible photo:

To me this is quite exciting and I'd love to be able to go in and see what they're doing. I also hope they keep the site for maintenance and further restoration once the Express is up and running.  

I think from here on out I'm just gonna post photos and caption them, keeps things short but interesting.

The Sanatoga Fire Co. was out front the other day when one of my neighbors reported a gas leak.  Sanatoga means "crooked hill" and the truck says "Crooked Hill Ridge Runners"

While debating what a gas explosion would do to my house, I found a grasshopper.  He was a cheerful bloke, but a little jumpy...

One of my orders of Magic cards came in.  There is much shiny going on here, 2 promo Emrakuls,

 3 promo Sheoldreds and an Awakening Zone.

Shiiiiiiiiiny raaaaaaappppeeeee......

Got a brand new fork lift at work.  I find it ironic that Toyota forklifts are built in the USA.

Spent yesterday visiting college friends and a very special young woman at the Allentown Collegiate Band Festival.

That's been my week so far in a nutshell.  I'd go into more detail here and there but I don't want to bore my precious few readers too much =P I do wish Blogger handled photos and spacing better, in the editor all m photos are centered but here they seem to shift...

Until next time!

Fiscal Flaming Flukes Flaunting Fun...What?

OMG! A second post inside a week. Don't ask.  Since I last posted I tracked down the Blogger app for my iPod, which I've looked for in the App Store before and never found.  With it, you may see more, mini-posts here and there when I'm too lazy to fire up the laptop.  Today has been a slew of "poor financial decisions" starting with buying Magic cards online.  (By the way, giving me a paycheck is a bad idea)  I found a site that offers some pretty unique cards, including promo cards which I couldn't resist.  I then trekked to the Mart of Wals in search of two things: Contact lens solution, and Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas Duel Decks.

Walmart had a good deal on the contact solution but their pathetic Magic selection was worse than usual, so I trekked to the nearest Target.  They must've had 12 sets of the Duel Deck...I bought four.

Smell that? That's money on fire.

                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                     

OM NOMNOM!

Yep, $80 in Magic, all the same set. Why?  Simple, Duel Decks are limited printings and the namesake cards in each feature different artwork than the original versions. They MSRP for about $20 but after a few months, their value shoots up.  The original Duel Deck, Elves vs. Goblins goes for about $180 on Amazon.  Now not all the Duel Decks go up in value, I bought the Knights vs. Dragons set this past spring and it's still only $25, but I liked the concept and enjoy raping people with overpowered dragons :P  Anywho, I expect the Ajani/Bolas Deck to inflate nicely over time, and if it doesn't I'll just give out my extra three sets as gifts.


I also spent a good part of the day hunting down single cards via Amazon and other, more shady sites.  I'd list them all but I'd like to leave some nasty surprises for my friends, muahaha!

I also have a photo update from my Time Keeps on Slipping post where I talked about pulling my third Kozilek:

The first Kozilek I bought, the 2nd came from a booster and was traded to a friend, the third also came from a booster. Emrakul came from the infamous Shane Pilgrim.

To be honest, I think the Eldrazi are my second favorite Magic creature after Slivers.  They're rather difficult to get onto the field, but woe to your opponents when you do.  Especially the big guys.  I find it a little sad that the novel accompanying the Zendikar/Worldwake/Rise of the Eldrazi block doesn't offer a solution to these behemoths. It's my understanding that the book ends on a cliffhanger.  So how did the Planeswalkers stop them? Why did Nicol Bolas want them released?  And if the Eldrazi are so powerful, will they return?

On that note, I'm going to go upstairs and play my decks against each other.